Cue the funk. It may have been the coolest show about reading ever, and it’s coming back.

The Electric Company, “Refitted for the age of hip-hop and informed by decades of further educational research on reading,” according to the New York Times, will return to public television in 2009.

“It’s the old one mixed with ‘High School Musical’ and a Dr Pepper commercial,” Linda Simensky, senior director of programming for PBS Kids, told the Times.

And some funk? Just a little?

The original show ran from 1971-1977. Check out classic audio and video clips from the show — including the famous “banana in your ear” skit — at the SesameWorkshop.org/tec.

It was the worst climbing tragedy in Mount Everest’s History. As darkness fell on May 10, 1996, a fast-moving storm of unimaginable ferocity trapped three climbing teams high on the slopes of Mount Everest. The climbers, exhausted from their summit climb, were soon lost in darkness, in a fierce blizzard, far from the safety of high camp at 26,000 feet. World-renowned climber and filmmaker David Breashears returns to Everest to tell the story of the climbers who perished in that storm in Frontline’s presentation of “Storm Over Everest,” Tuesday, May 13 at 8:00 p.m. central on NPT and PBS stations nationwide. It is also the story of 11 climbers caught in the storm and the eyewitness accounts of their astonishing survival in the world’s most unforgiving environment.

Elisabeth Jensen in the New York Times writes, “In an attempt to free his film from the controversy of that day — mostly manufactured by the media, he says — Mr. Breashears largely avoids second-guessing, instead piecing together a straightforward story of the climb, told by the participants and focused around the storm itself — what it was like to be in it and survive. Close observers of the tragedy are left to parse for themselves how the recollections match up with past accounts, like in the best-selling book “Into Thin Air,” which sold nearly one million hardcover copies alone.”

James Clash, Adventure Columnist for Forbes Magazine, has an interview with Breashers:

Preview:

Country Music Hall of Famer Eddy Arnold passed away this morning at the age of 89.

The Tennessean has an obit by Peter Cooper, a remembrance by Beverly Keel, and more, including slideshows of Arnold’s career.

Program-related DVD’s, CD’s, plush toys must go; free flea market parking; DTV Converter Box Demo

It’s time to do some spring cleaning around here, so we’re having a garage sale. Timed to coincide with the Flea Market just down the block at the Tennessee Fairgrounds on Saturday, May 24, the one-day event will take place in NPT’s Studio A, where bargain shoppers can support Television Worth Watching and select from an array of items, including brand new DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs and cassettes. Also available will be brand new coffee makers (that’s right, brand new coffeemakers!) plush toys, set pieces, office furniture, dishes and silverware. Everything will be priced to sell.

You can also get a look at how DTV converter boxes work, and pick up free literature containing everything they need to know about the upcoming DTV transition.

Plenty of free parking is available in NPT’s parking lot for garage sale shoppers who can then walk to the Flea Market. The sale is open from 8:00 a.m. to noon, and cash or check is accepted. No early birds. Free parking will be available until noon, after which the gates will close. NPT is located at 161 Rains Avenue, Nashville, 37203.

C’mon down!

Parade Magazine is asking readers if their money should support PBS:

From the site:

In the next few months, Congress will decide whether to continue supporting Big Bird—or give him the ax. Public broadcasting gets around $400 million annually from the U.S. government, which covers about 15% of local station budgets. (Most shows are funded primarily by producers, viewer donations, private foundations and corporations.) Now the Bush Administration has proposed cutting funding by half.

Those who agree with this decrease say that, with the availability of high-quality cable-TV shows, public TV is unnecessary. Its average nightly audience is 2.1 million—around half of the viewership of pro wrestling. Responds Eric Boehlert, senior fellow at Media Matters, a nonprofit media watchdog group: “PBS is a success story for the government, ranking up there with the national parks. Any cuts would hurt the millions of people who can’t or won’t pay for cable.” Should tax dollars support PBS? Vote at Parade.com.

Still unclear about DTV Transition? We’ve created four new videos — specifically for our web viewing — to help you out. Kevin Crane, our VP of Technology and Programming leads the way. Watch them at http://wnpt.net/dtv.

Got questions? drop us a line newmedia[at]wnpt.net.

Sometimes, we must honor our own. Congratulations to, left, NPT Vice President of Development and Marketing Daniel Tidwell and NPT Volunteer Coordinator (and Nashville Scene Lust Lister) Miguel Otero for finishing the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. Otero finished at 2:14:43, with Tidwell just behind him at 2:14.46. Meanwhile part-timer Jay Rockholt went the full 26.2 miles.

NPT consultant Kathy Tompkins also finished the 1/2 Marathon.

None of these folks should have any trouble with the NPT 8 K, coming on June 14.

The Nashville Film Festival wrapped last Thursday, with over 22,000 attendees — a 10% increase from 2007 — and 31 sold-out screenings. Though not necessarily a total surprise, one of the big hits of the festival was Barry Simmons’s documentary Sons of Lwala, which not only took home the NPT Human Spirit Award, but also walked away with the Audience Award for Best Documentary and the Tennessee Independent Spirit Award for best Feature Length Film. All this for a film that Simmons, as he told me at the Festival before his first screening, hadn’t submitted to any other festivals.

Simmons may have been a journalist before his Sons of Lwala journey began, but he’s definitely a filmmaker now

From an NPT angle, this is the second year in a row that the NPT Human Spirit Award Winner has gone on to win the Audience Award. Last year, The Clinton 12, picked up both.

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Season 4 of Art in the Twenty-First Century, a contemporary art series on PBS that we also screened at the Frist Center several months ago, has won a George Foster Peabody Award — the premiere international prize in electronic media — in the 67th Annual Peabody Awards Competition.

The Art:21 series was recognized for providing “a unique forum for the display, analysis and appreciation of myriad forms of contemporary visual art” by the University of Georgia’s Henry W. Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, which has administered the Peabody Award program since its inception in 1940.

Mandy’s getting ready. Are you?